Dwayne Roloson finally broke into the playoffs with the Calgary Flames.

Not as a netminder, mind you.

The former Flames goalie is in town with ESPN, working as a colour commentator for the U.S. sports network after his Minnesota Wild failed to make the NHL post-season.

It comes six years after his league debut with the Flames, when Calgary missed the playoffs during the 1996-97 season.

"I hate to have that weight on my shoulders but I was here for that," said Roloson, who posted a 20-30-11 record and a 2.95 goals-against average over 70 games with the Flames. "The organization's done a lot of growing. It was a long, drawn-out process. But they got to where they wanted to get now."

With the Wild sidelined for the playoffs, Roloson was approached by ESPN's Tim Scanlan on a good word put in by an affiliate producer in the Twin Cities.

He made his debut last Friday night on ESPN2, when the Montreal Canadiens lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of their series.

"I told them if I wasn't going to the world championships, I would do it," said Roloson, who opted to decline a third-goalie invitation from Hockey Canada despite a sparkling season that saw him finish with the second-best GAA (1.88) behind Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and tied with Kiprusoff for the top save percentage (.933).

"I'm learning every day about doing the TV part of it. And also I'm learning about other guys in the league.

"We don't see Montreal and Boston a lot, so doing that game I've got to learn a lot of things about their players that I didn't know, which is great for me when I'm playing. I'm not scouting anything internally -- I'm not going to go out and tell about anybody's secrets or anything like that. It's more shooters and players and what they do on the ice."

Although he's not sure if he'll get to do the whole series, Roloson wouldn't mind sticking around to see the conclusion of the Flames-Canucks series.

He'd like to be here when his Flames-will-win prediction comes to fruition.

"You can't really root against your alumnus," Roloson said. "It's nice for the team and the fans to get a chance to see a playoff game that they haven't seen in a long time. They're getting rewarded for all the hard work and commitment over the years.

"Now, it's great to have 19,500 fans. I don't know when the last time is they had 19,500 in this building."